Not sure the best way to fix this on our RV-10. We’ve noticed we have some scraping on the left flap where it slides under the trailing edge of the wing. I uploaded two images: one where I marked all the places it is scraping with blue tape and another of a closeup of one of the worst spots. It doesn’t look like it’s the shop head side of the rivet that is doing the scraping since the scraped areas are pretty wide.
I contacted Vans for advice and this is what they suggested:
“I think if you smooth off the lower surface of the trailing edge of the skin at an oblique angle with a light file and then sand it smooth this may help, along with smoothing the light gouges in the flap. This collision is not that severe so small modifications might help here.
Depending on when you plan to paint the aircraft, it may be wise to fly it for a while and allow the areas to “match” each other before painting. This way you will probably reduce the damage to the paintwork.
Radical remedies like using a small hammer to tap the flaps at the collision points and removing rivets along the top skins and then re riveting may be too impactful initially but may be an option if the first ideas don’t help.”
I did sand away the underside of that overlapping edge at an angle and sanded out the scrapes on the flap but I’m concerned that even if this fixes it it will scrape after painting since the paint will build up the surface of the flap enough so that it may touch again. We did buy some of the Paint Protection Film to put on the underside of trailing edge but that will also make the fit tighter. We will probably take it to get painted in January
Anyone else have this issue?
I contacted Vans for advice and this is what they suggested:
“I think if you smooth off the lower surface of the trailing edge of the skin at an oblique angle with a light file and then sand it smooth this may help, along with smoothing the light gouges in the flap. This collision is not that severe so small modifications might help here.
Depending on when you plan to paint the aircraft, it may be wise to fly it for a while and allow the areas to “match” each other before painting. This way you will probably reduce the damage to the paintwork.
Radical remedies like using a small hammer to tap the flaps at the collision points and removing rivets along the top skins and then re riveting may be too impactful initially but may be an option if the first ideas don’t help.”
I did sand away the underside of that overlapping edge at an angle and sanded out the scrapes on the flap but I’m concerned that even if this fixes it it will scrape after painting since the paint will build up the surface of the flap enough so that it may touch again. We did buy some of the Paint Protection Film to put on the underside of trailing edge but that will also make the fit tighter. We will probably take it to get painted in January
Anyone else have this issue?
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